Staten Island Advance/Hilton FloresVeterans James A. Haynes III and Anthony Fanelli stand near a World War II monument in Livingston that earlier this year suffered the loss of a 150-pound bronze plaque commemorating the service of war heroes from the neighborhood.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Nowadays, the burglars don't even wait for a house to be finished.

The brisk trade in scrap metal has given rise to thefts from construction sites of everything from copper pipes to radiators to aluminum.

On July 16, Jeffrey Reader, 21, of Stapleton, stole "hundreds of feet of copper and brass pipe," a cast-iron radiator and a water meter from a house under construction on Chestnut Street, said District Attorney Daniel Donovan.

The cost to replace the stolen items exceeded $10,000, and 11 days later, Reader sold the materials to a Port Richmond scrap dealer for $439.80, Donovan said.

Luckily, the dealer kept records of the sale, which aided police in arresting Reader, who has been indicted on two counts of burglary, three counts of criminal possession of stolen property and three counts of criminal mischief, Donovan said.

"The simple keeping of a record -- a sales receipt -- helped us solve this crime," Donovan said. "This is crucial to our efforts to stop these crimes."

With an economy in the dumps and metal prices in the stratosphere, thieves are targeting everything from war memorials to individual homes undergoing improvements to swipe metal and sell it for scrap.

"A monument to 100 heroes from this community -- there was a metal plaque right here -- these are people who served in World War II, someone took it off and sold it for scrap," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer. "That is a disgrace."

Donovan stood with Schumer (D-N.Y.) Wednesday afternoon in Livingston at the site of a World War II monument that earlier this year suffered the loss of a 150-pound bronze plaque commemorating the service of war heroes from the neighborhood.

The 40-by-50-inch bronze plaque was ripped from a stone monument on the Kill van Kull side of Richmond Terrace between Bard Avenue and Snug Harbor Road back in March; at that time, bronze was selling for $1.85 per pound.

Schumer is introducing federal legislation -- the Metal Theft Prevention Act -- that would require metal sellers to provide proof of ownership when selling scrap, make it a federal offense to take metal from critical infrastructure, require detailed records of sales and limit cash payments for scrap to $100.

He said the proof of ownership for the seller would be "flexible," but it would be hard for an average citizen to sell a city manhole cover.

Also, a check would be required for any payment of more than $100 for scrap, which would leave a paper trail police could follow to thieves.

According to RockawayRecycling.com the current price of copper tubing is $2.79 a pound; brass plumbing fixtures are $1.63 a pound, and bare bright copper wire fetches $3.05 a pound.